PGA Tour’s rising young stars ready to take on Tiger Woods at Masters

Jordan Spieth was 3 when Tiger Woods won his first Masters, 11 when he won his most recent one and 14 when he won his last major, the 2008 U.S. Open. Now 21, the 2014 Masters runner-up is as anxious as the rest of the golf world to see if the confidence Woods has shown in his game this week is well-founded.

“It’s been a dream of mine to be in contention with Tiger Woods in a major championship, and at Augusta,” Spieth said Tuesday.

Spieth is just one of dozens of the game’s rising young stars who are anxious to measure themselves against the Tiger Woods all of them grew up idolizing. If the 10-week hiatus Woods just took from competitive golf to work on his game results in a return anywhere near his former standard, it will be the most tantalizing story line at Augusta National this week.

There are others, not the least of which is world No. 1 Rory McIlroy’s quest to become only the sixth player in the modern era to complete the career grand slam. Bubba Watson is looking to become only the fourth repeat champion and join Jack Nicklaus as the only men to win three times in four years (Nicklaus did it in 1963, 1965-66). And two-time champion Ben Crenshaw is playing for the 44th and last time.

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For all that, the quest of the clearly reinvigorated Woods to end his seven-year major drought will take precedence when the 79th Masters gets underway at 7:40 a.m. with the ceremonial opening tee shots featuring Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.

Woods spoke before his Hero Challenge in Orlando last December of having worked with new swing coach Chris Como on recapturing the swing that brought him so much success earlier in his career. After failing to complete that transition prior to dropping out of an early February event at Torrey Pines, he thinks he has accomplished that over the last 10 weeks.

“It’s new but old, or old but new,” Woods said. “I’ve been there before. Once I started picking it up, it came pretty quick.”

Much of the landscape hasn’t changed.

“Competing is still the same,” he said. “I’m trying to beat everybody out there. I prepare to win and expect to go and do that.

“The only difference is that, yeah, I won the Masters when Jordan (Spieth) was in diapers. Guys are now younger - a whole generation of kids are coming out.”

And they are talented. Seven of the top 20 in the world rankings are in their 20s, including McIlroy, who lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Spieth (No. 4), Jason Day (No. 5), Jupiter’s Rickie Fowler (No. 13), Patrick Reed (No. 15), former Florida Gator Billy Horschel (No. 18) and Wellington native Brooks Koepka (No. 19).

Day, who has a second (2011) and third (2013) among his four Masters appearances, still recalls watching Woods dominate the majors as a kid growing up in Australia.

“I wanted to go out and play like he did,” Day said. “But I never thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to grow up and be Tiger Woods.’ I never thought about winning that much.

“The two goals I’ve ever had were winning (the Masters) and getting to No. 1 in the world; that’s all I’ve ever wanted. And obviously seeing Tiger, the way he played, that helped along as well.”

Woods seems to accept that, at least in some ways, he never again will dominate as he once did. As he pointed out, he averaged 296 yards off the tee in his early days, which was second only to John Daly’s 320; now there are 20 players averaging 300-plus on the PGA Tour.

“The game has evolved so much since I’ve been out here, and the biggest difference is I know I can pump it out there 320, but I can’t carry it each and every time like some of the big guys can,” he said. “The game has become so big; 7,100-yard golf courses are extremely short now, (where) before they were long.”

So is he feeling old? “I’m feeling older, there’s no doubt about it,” he said.

Still, Woods is seven years younger than Nicklaus was when he won the last of his six green jackets. And there’s little doubt that if, say, he and Spieth wind up toe-to-toe on Sunday, Spieth will get every bit of satisfaction out of beating Woods at 39 as, say, Y.E. Yang did when he overtook him to win the 2009 PGA Championship when Woods was 33.

“It is a dream for everybody to be in contention and try to take Tiger down on the back nine of Augusta,” Spieth said. “But I’m certainly rooting for him. He wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t ready, and I’m excited to see him back at the top of his game.”